Premier League stars will be desperate to play again…, former Liverpool star

Former Liverpool star Danny
Murphy believes footballers would be ready and willing to spend weeks away from
family if it meant football could return and if it was necessary to complete
the Premier League season.

Top flight bosses and club
chiefs are meeting via video call on Monday for their latest discussions over
‘Project Restart’ after the government’s road map for exiting the lockdown
imposed to limit the spread of coronavirus was published.

Step two of the road map,
which cannot begin any earlier than June 1, includes “permitting cultural and
sporting events to take place behind closed-doors for broadcast, while avoiding
the risk of large-scale social contact”.

Premier League clubs are now
set to ramp up their plans to resume the 2019/20 campaign, with the use of
neutral venues mooted as a possibility to ensure maximum safety.

The Premier League has been
suspended since March, but it appears a return to action could be on the
horizon.

However, there remain plenty
of doubts and misgivings about those plans, and whether players would actually
be willing to return to action while the health crisis continues.

Arsenal legend Ray Parlour
has hit out at the ‘pressure’ being put on footballers to essentially place
themselves and their families at risk, while Crystal Palace chairman Steve
Parish has insisted his club will NOT force any of their players to play if
they don’t want to.

Murphy, though, believes the
majority of Premier League stars will be itching to get back on the field.

And the former Liverpool
midfield says he would ‘play tomorrow’ if he was assured it was safe.

“Football is what consumed
my life and made me happy, and when you play football and it’s taken away, for
whatever reason, injury this pandemic, players don’t like not playing because
it’s what they’re used to,” he told talkSPORT host Natalie Sawyer.

“They’ll always be a
minority that will go against, but the majority of players will be desperate to
get back playing.

Danny Murphy says he’d ‘play
tomorrow’ if he was assured it was safe.

“Are the clubs going to be
doing everything they can? Of course they will because they want to protect
their assets.

“So, do I want to play
football? Yes. Do I care if it’s an empty stadium? No. Do I care if it’s a
neutral stadium? No.

“When the CEOs are coming
out and saying, ‘we don’t want to play in a neutral stadium’, I bet if you ask
the players every one of them would say: ‘Is the stadium safe? Get me there,
I’ll play tomorrow.

“Because that’s what you
love doing as a footballer.”

One of the solutions
reportedly under consideration is to complete the remaining games of the season
in the space of eight weeks, while teams could be kept in isolation to help
prevent the spread of COVID-19 within their ranks and games could be played in
neutral stadiums in a tournament style environment.

‘I can’t tell my players to
put their pregnant wives at risk by playing’ - Charlton boss Lee Bowyer claims
this season will NEVER be finished.

And Murphy believes the
majority of players would also accept those conditions, even if it meant
spending two months away from their families, to ensure the season is played to
a conclusion.

The former England
international added: “If you were to say to me, ‘for the next six or eight
weeks you’re going to have to be away from your family’, I’ve done that before.

“It’ll be like going to a
tournament, a World Cup or a European Championship, I’ve been away from my
family for six weeks before now.

“This doesn’t suit everyone,
especially if you’ve got young kids that have just been born or parents who are
unwell.

“But if you’re saying to me:
‘You want to get the season done? You might not be able to see your family for
six weeks, we’re going to put the team together in isolation, we’re going to be
continually test you and this will help appease your fears from spreading it to
close family…’